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Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the entirety of Earth's smallest continent (although a few older references call it the world's largest island, a matter of cultural interpretation), the major island of Tasmania, and a number of other islands in the Southern, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Indonesia and Papua New Guinea are island nations close to Australia's north coast, and New Zealand lies 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) to the east. The mainland of Australia has been inhabited for more than 42,000 years by Indigenous Australians. After sporadic visits by fishermen from the north and by European explorers and merchants, such as the Dutch, starting in the seventeenth century, the eastern half of the mainland was claimed by the British Empire in 1770 and officially settled through penal transportation as the colony of New South Wales on 26 January 1788. As the population grew and new areas were explored, another five largely self-governing Crown Colonies were successively established over the course of the 19th century. On 1 January 1901, the six colonies became a Federation, and the Commonwealth of Australia was formed. Since federation, Australia has maintained a stable liberal democratic political system and remains a Commonwealth Realm. The capital city is Canberra, located in the Australian Capital Territory. The current national population is approximately 20.6 million people, and is concentrated mainly in the large coastal cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. Australia is treasured by zoologists for its plethora of unique mammalian life forms which developed in isolation from the rest of the world. However, introduction of dogs, cats, pigs, rabbits, and other European fauna since the late 18th century, have caused a number of species to become extinct or endangered due to predation or food competition. In spite of this, the most famous Australian native form, the kangaroo, shows no sign of going away. Regarded by the local humans as both a blessing and a curse, it has the paradoxical status of being both a national symbol and a prolifically breeding pest whose population has to be forcibly culled with great frequency. Australia in The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump Australia had some strong indigenous Powers, who had been displaced by colonialism and remained bitter about this.The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump, p. 215. Australia in Days of Infamy Australia had been fighting with the rest of the British Empire during World War II when the Japanese entered the war in 1941. Like all of the other European powers in the Pacific, the Australians were caught unprepared. Along with the British, the Americans and the Dutch, the Australian military was defeated in Malaya, Singapore, the East Indies, and New Guinea.See, generally, Days of Infamy. After the fall of Hawaii, supplying Australia from the United States became extremely difficult, and Australian's feared a possible invasion as the Japanese held complete air superiority over the northern half of the continent.Ibid., pg. 456-457 Paperback. Between 1942 and 1943, Australian towns were subjected to bombing raids, many of which were shown in the Japanese-controlled cinemasIbid. pg. 445 Paperback. and newspapers''End of the Beginning, pg. 165 Paperback. of Occupied Hawaii. By early 1943 however, the Japanese had lost their dominance over the northern Australian skies, and the U.S. Army Air Force had begun bombing the southern coast of New Guinea from Australian bases.Ibid., pg. 177 Paperback. Australia in ''In the Presence of Mine Enemies Australia was conquered by Japan and remained part of the Japanese Empire in 2010.In the Presence of Mine Enemies pg. 26, HC. Australia in Joe Steele After being defeated by the Japanese in the Philippines, US General Douglas MacArthur continued to fight at Bataan until Joe Steele ordered him to escape to Australia and then return to Washington, DC, then had George Marshall give the final order. MacArthur acquiesced, and three B-17s came up from Australia to pick him up.Joe Steele, hc. pg. 257-258. Australia in "Les Mortes d'Arthur" By the 22nd Century Australia along with New Zealand had joined together in a political alliance called the Anzac Federation. Although they were able to afford to send a team to Mimas, a moon of Saturn, for the Sixty-sixth Winter Games, they weren't wealthy enough to have their athletes train there in the low-g environment prior to the Games. Australia in "News From the Front" During the early stages of World War II, the [[Philadelphia Inquirer#Philadelphia Inquirer in "News From the Front"|Philadelphia Inquirer]] reported on anti-war demonstrators demanding, among other things, that the US withdraw its troops from Australia. Before Bataan fell, the [[San Francisco Chronicle#San Francisco Chronicle in "News From the Front"|San Francisco Chronicle]] reported on General Douglas MacArthur's flight from the Philippines to Australia, landing in Darwin, which had been bombed and evacuated. When [[New York Times (News From the Front)|New York Times]] revealed that the UK had broken the German codes, it also revealed the presence of British code breakers in Australia as part the British intelligence network. After the loss of Midway, it was feared that Japanese submarines could cut the supply lines to Australia. Australia in Noninterference Australia had more than three thousand years of history as an English-speaking continent in the southern hemisphere of Earth, going through the stages of being a British colony, an independent state, an autonomous part of United Earth, and finally - while retaining the latter role - also a sub-unit of Earth itself as an autonomous Member World of the Federacy. Australia was still in the latter status during the dramatic events of 2686-2688 FSY, and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. As the English language was largely identical to the Federacy official language Basic, Australians had some advantages over non-English speakers from other parts of Earth or other worlds of the Federacy. Australia in Southern Victory Australia was controlled by the British Empire and was isolated from the major conflicts of the 19th century. By the 20th century the colonies had united to become a dominion and in 1914 joined the rest of the Empire in the war against the Central Powers. In the opening weeks of the war, the United States Navy defeated the Royal Navy and took the Sandwich Islands forcing the British to withdraw to Australian bases.American Front, pg. 75 Paperback. After the war ended, Britain's position in the country was still strong despite its defeat elsewhere.Blood and Iron, pg. 109 Paperback. During the 1930s as the world marched to war, it was feared that Australia, along with New Zealand could be used as a submersible base for the British Pacific fleet to attack American convoys between the mainland and the Sandwich Islands.The Victorious Opposition, pg. 67 Paperback. In 1941, Australia became involved in the Second Great War against Germany and the United States, but only played a minor role. In 1943, Japan abandoned its own war against the US and chose to concentrate against the British Empire's holdings in Asia. Fighting a losing war in Europe, the British were quickly defeated, leaving the continent isolated and alarmed.In at the Death, pg. 297. Australia in The Two Georges Australia was a kingdom within the British Empire. In 1995 it was ruled by King-Emperor Charles III as a constitutional monarch.The Two Georges, pg. 142, MPB. The large island of New Guinea to the north, and the Solomon Islands to the northeast, were part of the kingdom.Ibid., frontispiece map. Australia in The War That Came Early Australia joined the British Empire in declaring war on Germany in October, 1938. However the country was only a minor player in the overall conflict. In January 1941, the Empire of Japan attacked the European and US powers in the Pacific, abruptly bringing the war closer to Australia's shores. After the allies were defeated in the Java Sea and the Japanese conquered the island of Timor, the country found itself under direct attack. Timor gave the Imperial Japanese Navy the bases its aircraft required to bomb the port city of Darwin, while its submarines prowled the waters around the continent's north.Coup d'Etat, pg. 129 Kindle. Australia continued on in the war against Japan throughout 1942-44, both directly fighting and providing the US with a base of operations. Mundanely, the substantial U.S. presence led to baseball becoming very popular amoung the populous by 1944.Last Orders, pg. 319. See also Inconsistencies in Turtledove's Work#Inconsistencies in The War That Came Early Australia in Worldwar By mid-1942, Australia was fighting Germany, Italy, and Japan as World War II raged across the globe. When the Race invaded Earth in June 1942, the country was left isolated from the rest of the world. By 1944, the Australian military was proving to be a nuisance to the Race that resisted being subdued by conventional means. This prompted Fleetlord Atvar, who had already been considering using explosive-metal bombs more freely, to deploy two bombs against the continent's major population centers of Sydney and Melbourne. The tactic worked, and Australia's human population was decimated and subdued in the aftermath. Although the British had been outraged by this, they were unable to retaliate and forced to relinquish all claim to Australia at the Peace of Cairo later that year, after which it was annexed completely by the Race as a colony.See the Colonization map. When the Colonization Fleet arrived in 1962, Australia was heavily colonized by the Race, and became something of a 'Lizard's Paradise' on Tosev 3. It had one of the few climates on Earth which the Race found agreeable, and that combined with its low human population made it the most desirable area of the planet for the Race. Nonetheless, Fleetlord Atvar rejected the idea of moving his government seat there, as relocating from the more rebellious Cairo might have signaled weakness to the major human powers. Conversely, human Australians were treated far more oppressively by the Race than most other humans in Race-ruled countries. In effect, they were dispossessed of their country, much as they themselves had dispossessed the Australian Aboriginals a century earlier. Seeing no chance of ever throwing off the Race's yoke - indeed, seeing its colonization of Australia greatly intensified following the arrival of the Colonization Fleet - many Australians chose to emigrate. One favoured destination was Canada, an English-speaking country which had avoided occupation by the Race. When it was learned that ginger caused the Race to become sexually active at any time of the year, the Soviet Union fired missiles containing ginger and detonated them above one of the Race's colonies in the Outback. This caused widespread intoxication among the members of the Race there, including Atvar, as well as a sexual orgy. The Race was unable to identify which Tosevite power ordered this attack, nor did they make any effort to investigate as they saw the incident as little more than a prank. During the Race-German War of 1965, the [[Greater German Reich (Worldwar)|Greater German Reich]] caused some damage to Race colonies in Australia with their nuclear submarine fleet stationed in the Indian Ocean. Though due to the distance of the continent from Germany, these weren't hit as hard as colonies in Arabia and North Africa. The Australian flag hung in the Emperor's throne room in Preffilo along with the flags of other Tosevite empires and not-empires conquered by Atvar, the pre-Race empires of Rabotev 2 and Halless 1, and the ancient empires on Home which were absorbed by the Ssumaz dynasty. By 2031, Australia's ecology was the worst affected on Earth by Race colonization. This was the result of the British having brought their own animals to the continent in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the Race having brought their animals in the 20th. References }} Category:Australia Category:Continents Category:Allied Forces Members Category:British Empire (OTL) Category:British Empire (Alternate Timeline) Category:Japanese Empire (Alternate Timeline) Category:The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump Category:Days of Infamy Category:Joe Steele Category:Les Mortes d'Arthur Category:News From the Front Category:Noninterference Category:Southern Victory Category:British Empire (The Two Georges) Category:The War That Came Early Category:Worldwar Category:Race Colonies Category:Inconsistencies Category:Countries in Oceania